Kristin Scott Thomas hits her mark in two French films

NEW YORK — Kristin Scott Thomas took some time on Monday, the one day she has off from her Broadway gig, to talk about something she has been doing routinely, without fanfare, for many years.

The English actress, now 48, has been making French films for nearly three decades, during which she's also been a full-time resident of France. The American press has suddenly taken notice of this aspect of Thomas' career with considerable enthusiasm.

The actress best known in this country for the 1996 film "The English Patient," and in New York at present for her performance in the highly praised stage production of Chekhov's "The Seagull," appears in two French films this year that have gotten noticed over here — this past summer's "Tell No One," and "I've Loved You So Long," which opens Friday.

Anyone who sees these two movies will note that Thomas speaks flawless, accent-free French in them. But she shrugs this off.

"So many people speak different languages in Europe. There's such a big difference between each country so everybody learns, well, not everybody, but a lot of people — I mean, Germans all speak perfect English, and so do the Dutch, and Italians all speak very good French, and the Spanish," said the actress, while sitting down for an interview in a Manhattan hotel.

"It feels pretty natural. It's not such a big deal over there."

Thomas also appears to take the same nonchalant attitude to how her acting career came about.

"I went to France when I was 19 years old to try and escape my desire to be an actress. Backfired terribly," she said.

Thomas's understated tone suits the profile of "I've Loved You So Long," a heavy drama in which the actress plays a woman newly released from prison for murder who slowly readjusts to life on the outside while living with a sister and her family.

Thomas's performance is being talked about for an Oscar nomination. She's grateful for the attention from her peers, but said, "I think it's a bit early. There's a long time to the Oscars. Whether they'll still be saying it in three months' time I don't know."

"I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch, or selling the skin of the bear before they've killed it, as they say in France."

Thomas is fairly certain that if this film were a big Hollywood production there would be deafening Oscar buzz — for someone other than her.

"I think they would've gotten a huge star who put on a false nose or something. They would've somehow sought out the spectacular, whereas I think this film denies the spectacular. It's a quiet film," she said.

"I'm very, very proud to be in it. But there's no shock horror to it."

In person Thomas is fully as graceful, beautiful and sexy in a smoldering sort of way as she typically appears on screen. But "I've Loved You So Long" isn't a typical film for Thomas, in that for at least the first half of the picture she appears without makeup, unsmiling, and not a little haggard.

"At the Berlin Film Festival I was there right at the beginning of the screening, and when the picture fades in — because it's black in the beginning and fades in — and you see me sitting there, there was a gasp of horror from the audience. Maybe there is some shock horror there," she said.

"It's a great relief not to have to be vain anymore. It's very freeing not to have to worry about the way you look. The only makeup I had on for much of the film was a yellow stain on my fingers to look like smoker's fingers."

Thomas doesn't smoke, but had to for this film.

Said the actress, "It was hell. I used to get the props guys to light the cigarettes. You can't get the herbal cigarettes in France, and even the herbal cigarettes, because I smoke those on stage — I'm a professional smoker, put it that way."

After a special screening of her film Monday night, it was back to the grind of a Broadway show for Thomas on Tuesday, which she says she loves. Thomas portrays Arkandina in the play at the Walter Kerr Theatre, after having won an Olivier Award for the same performance in the London production. But New York is different.

For one thing, both the stage and the theater are bigger here. "This stage is almost half as big again so it gives a much wider space of play. The distance is exaggerated and the closeness is exaggerated," said Thomas.

And then there's the contrast between British and American theater audiences, which Thomas finds fascinating.

"Sometimes in London you get the feeling that people are 'um, well, don't know.' But in America we've got the feeling that they've got their ticket and they know they've bought quality. They appreciate quality, which is a fantastic feeling for us," she said.

"It's just a different American take on life, which is perhaps different in New York than it is in the rest of America. But it's still different from Europe."